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3D Shuttle-Based Pallet ASRS for Distribution Facilities with Space Limitations

Next-generation shuttle pallet storage and retrieval systems enable automated warehouse operations, delivering flexibility, modularity and scalability.

The consumer goods industries are in the midst of a supply chain revolution. Continuous increase in the cost of land, labor and facilities has put a heightened demand on space utilization within warehouses and distribution centers.

Just-in-time delivery of smaller quantities of a larger number of products and orders to retail stores is pushing inventory storage back to the DCs and manufacturers. Manufacturers are more closely looking at their storage and how they can satisfy the needs of retailers. Along with this growth in SKUs and just-in-time delivery is an increase in the variability of primary and secondary packaging of consumer products. Packaging styles include boxes of all sizes, cans and jars in paperboard trays, open and closed cartons for beverages and bags, and large tissue packages.

Logistics executives are adjusting to these dynamics by “reconcepting” their DCs and manufacturing warehouses, looking for answers to questions like… “How can we optimize our distribution at the lowest total cost, factoring facility, labor, equipment and inventory? And, how can we reduce inbound and outbound transportation costs, and fixed and variable costs within our distribution network?”   

Automation is key

Grocery supply chain partners (including cold storage, food manufacturers, beverage and consumer products) need to provide increasingly efficient storage and throughput of high-volume, ever-changing SKU mixes to retail stores. For handling these loads, automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), and other technologies are becoming more widely utilized to speed throughput, improve cost efficiency and maintain more precise product tracking.

For decades, AS/RS cranes have served as the workhorse for high-density, high-throughput automated pallet movement in distribution operations. These computer-controlled systems, which automatically deposit, store and retrieve pallet loads from defined storage locations, permit rapid and efficient pallet handling and product rotation, essential to the needs of contemporary warehouses. AS/RS stacker cranes provide single-deep, double-deep and multi-deep stacking, with the flexibility to handle one pallet load at a time or multi-loads. The latest stacker cranes can go three pallets deep with a telescope fork, and then with a satellite remote unit can run a pallet as much as 20 pallets deep, and then return back to the stacker crane. 

High-bay AS/RS optimize cubic space usage, not only by their vertical stacking capability, but also by minimizing aisle cubic footage. By eliminating the need for forklift trucks, aisles can be made narrower, allowing 12-ft-wide aisles to become just 5-ft wide. This space can then be used for more pallet positions.

But conventional warehouses without high-bay ceiling heights are typically not candidates for AS/RS, even though they may have the same requirements for high-density, high-throughput storage and distribution of pallets with a high volume of fast-moving SKUs. As demands continue to increase on modern distribution facilities, frequently the performance of conventional AS/RS systems will not provide sufficient flexibility, space utilization, throughput and cost payback to justify the investment.  

This condition is exasperated as an increasing number of supply chain manufacturers, bottlers and distributors require 24-hour operations, at maximum throughput. Without AS/RS, warehouses depend upon the accelerated use of forklifts maneuvering pallets into low-bay racking and staging for shipping, which is both labor-intensive and space-consuming.

INTRODUCING! The Latest Trends for Life Sciences at PACK EXPO Southeast
The exciting new PACK EXPO Southeast 2025 unites all vertical markets in one dynamic hub, generating more innovative answers to packaging challenges for life sciences products. Don’t miss this extraordinary opportunity for your business!
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INTRODUCING! The Latest Trends for Life Sciences at PACK EXPO Southeast